


In the Name of Harry

by ChessCat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Boy-Who-Lived Neville Longbottom, Comatose Harry Potter, Gen, Harry Potter is Not the Boy-Who-Lived, James Potter Lives, Lily Evans Potter Lives, Multi, No beta we die like illiterates, Possessive Tom Riddle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-01-08 07:18:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21231929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChessCat/pseuds/ChessCat
Summary: Harry Potter is just your average wizard kid in your average wizard family. Sure, mom and dad aren't at home as often as he would like and they break their promises a lot but it's not like they want to so it's fine. Harry is a good kid so he understands and tries not to trouble them any more than necessary. Besides, he has to stay strong for his little brothers. Yes, Harry is a bit lonely in Hogwarts but that's fine. He's just friendless the first year. In his second year, he makes an unlikely friend (or even more?) in the form of Tom Riddle, a boy trapped in a diary.In a world where Harry is not the Boy-Who-Lived and yet, somehow, everything still revolves around him.





	1. Harry Potter

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Horror Of Our Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/419407) by [leontina (Leontina)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leontina/pseuds/leontina). 

> This is my first time writting on AO3 so I am not familiar with everything here so... you know...

Harry Potter wasjust your average wizard kid in your average wizard family.

His father is James Potter, Head of the Auror Department and member of the Order of the Phoenix. His mother is Lily Potter neé Evans, a renowned Charms Master and another member of the Order. OK, so maybe that wasn't completely average, especially condering the fact that they are like Nobles or something and that his parents played a great role in the last Wizarding War against You-Know-Who. Who, you asked? Voldemort of course, one of the darkest and most dangerous Dark Lord of all times, as far as Harry knows anyway. But I digress. We are not here to talk about some Dark Lord with an unhealthy fear of Death. We are here to talk about Harry's family.

Now, being as famous as they are, James and Lily were _very _busy. James had to work long hours everyday, not to mention the many times he had to stay late at work or was called in during weekends. Lily on the other hand, though she did travel from time to time, mostly worked from home. However, charm work has the potential to be very dangerous so she often locked herself up in her study. In addition, Albus Dumbledore sometimes call them in to help with Order businesses. Needless to say, being as busy as they were, Harry's parents were kind of neglectful. But Harry is a good child. He understood that their jobs are really taxing. He could see how hard they tried to make time for him, how regretful they were when they broke their promises. And so, he didn't blame them for being neglectful. He still loves them with all his heart.

Who takes care of Harry then? The House Elves, his godfather, Sirius Black, and his uncle in all but blood, Remus Lupin. They had been friends with his dad since Hogwarts, when the three of them were known as the Marauders. There was actually another member to this group, someone by the name of Peter, but he was tempted by the Dark side and they were no longer friends.

However, Sirius and Remus had their own lives too. Yes, they visited hia family a lot and they bring lots of gifts but they could not always be there for Harry. And Harry understood.

The last members of the Potter family are Harry's little baby brothers. They were Daniel, whose godfather was Remus, and Aiden, whose godfather was Severus Snape, a friend of mom who really disliked dad and Sirius (but not **hate**, not anymore). Daniel looked a lot like Harry. Both of them looked like their dad with their mom's eyes though Daniel's forest green eyes was a lot closer to Lily's than Harry's Avada Kedavra ones. Meanwhile, Aiden inherited their mom's fiery red hair and their dad hazal eyes. None of them could escape the curse that was the Potters' permanent bedhead though.

Daniel - "Danny" - and Aiden - "A" - loved Harry a lot, even more than they loved Lily and James. How could they not when it was Harry who was always by their side, taking care of all their needs, showering them with the love that James and Lily could not. They loved Harry so much that their first word was "Harry". Well, they said "Hawwy" but that was close enough for Harry's heart to melt and for James to start pouting.

...

Harry was at the King Cross station with his family. They were heading to the platform 9 3/4 where the eleven-year-old Harry would catch the Hogwarts Express, the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he was very excited. After all, Hogwarts was not only one of the best wizarding schools in Europe but also where his parents and his uncles met. Harry sincerily hoped that he would also forge bonds lasting lifetimes here, like his parents and uncles did. But part of Harry did not want to go because going to Hogwarts means leaving his brothers behind. Harry didn't really know how to socialize either. He was too busy taking care of his siblings to go out and play with other children in Godric's Hollow, the village where his family lived.

The station was a lot more crowded than usual. Apparently, Neville Longbottom, the Boy-Who-Lived, the one who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and ended the last Wizarding War, was starting Hogwarts today as well. Harry absently wonders what kind of person Neville is. Would he be humble or arrogant? Polite or rude? A saint or just a spoiled jerk? The eldest Potter child knew he could just ask his parents since the Order, or Dumbledore to be specific, called them to help the Boy-Who-Lived quite a few times. But Harry didn't want to bother them with his insignificant musings so he remained silent.

After a tearful goodbye and a promise to write lots of letters, the eight-year-old Danny and the four-year-old A finally let him board the scarlet train. The ride was relatively calming, except when a girl busted in to asked if he had seen a frog. He hadn't so he shakes his head and she left.

The train stopped at the Hogsmeade Station. He got off and followed the other students and climbed on a boat to Hogwarts. Just like in his parents' and uncles' story, Hogwarts was magnificent. Harry was not alone in that thought. He could see many of the other looking at it in awe and/or whispering quietly to each other in amazement.

He was sorted into Gryffindor, the House of the Brave & Chivalrous. As soon as the students were allowed to leave the Welcoming Feast, Harry immediately wrote a letter to his family and sent it with his trusty owl, one snowy owl by the name of Hedwig. He loved her and she loves him, and if he had just been a bit slower, they wouldn't be together. She would have belonged to the Boy-Who-Lived.

In his letter, he wrote everything. About the ride, about Hogwarts, about the Sorting. But not about how the Hat briefly considered to send him to Slytherin. He knew his family would love him no matter which House he got in but he also knew that James would have wanted him to follow his footsteps and get sorted into Gryffindor, and he knew James and Sirius disliked Slytherins, no matter how much they were trying to be better. So Harry kept it to himself.

...

As soon as he got out of the train, he was tackled by his younger brothers. They hugged him and it didn't seem like they were to let go of him any time soon. It seemed like they really miss him despite the daily letters and him coming home for Christmas. And he missed them too. It was lonely in Hogwarts. In Gryffindor, he shared his room with 4 other boys. There was Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas who, despite having just met each other, got on like a house on fire. The other two were the Boy-Who-Lived and the second-youngest Weasley, Ron. They had met on the train and quickly became friends. That leaves Harry as the quiet odd one out.

But Harry didn't talk about that to anyone. They had other things to do and didn't have time for his issues, Harry reasoned with himself. Besides, Harry has to stay strong for Danny and A. So, he kept his mouth shut. He neither talked about his loneliness nor talked about the fact that the Golden Trio, the Boy-Who-Lived and his two friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, rejected his help and offer of friendship when they went after the Philosopher's Stone.

His brothers continued to hug him and Harry hugged them back. It was at this moment that his parents and uncles was finally able to part through the crowd and reach them. Danny and little A finally relented and stopped the hugging. But while they might have stopped hugging him, they immediately switched to holding his hands. They gripped as hard as their little hands could manage, almost as if afraid he would disappear if they let go. He gripped back.

And the adults apparated them home.


	2. The Boy in the Diary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry meets Tom and plot happens

The second year started quite interesting to say the least. It started with the Potter family walking in on Arthur Weasley, Ron’s father, and Lucius Malfoy, Lord Malfoy, brawling in the middle of a bookstore during a meet-up with famous author Gilderoy Lockhart.

Mr Weasley was both his dad’s coworker at the Ministry of Magic as well as a fellow member of the Order. But whereas his dad was the Head of the Auror Department, Mr Weasley was the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department. His family was big, with seven children including Ron, the Boy-Who-Lived’s best friend, but also quite poor. According to what he heard, the Weasleys were once Nobles like the Potters and the Malfoys but due to some bad investments, they had lost most of their wealth, leaving the later generations to deal with the consequences.

In contrast, Lord Malfoy was not only rich but also fought on the opposite side in the last War, working as a Death Eater under You-Know-Who. Apparently, he had claimed to be controlled by the Imperius curse, one of three Unforgivable Curses, and got off with little to no consequences. Harry sincerely doubted that was the case but he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to offend Lord Malfoy in the off chance that he really was Imperiused. Another difference between the two is that the Malfoys only had one child, unlike the Weasleys. The child was Draco Malfoy, an arrogant Slytherin student in his year who, according to rumors, declared himself as Neville’s rival after his handshake was rejected. From Harry’s observations, Draco was also quite smart (not the smartest, mind you, but smart nonetheless) and hard working, traits that people usually ignored because how much of a pompous spoiled brat he was.

It was quite interesting to see a Pureblood who despises anything muggle like Lucius Malfoy resort to a fist fight instead of a wand fight (Merlin, that sounded so wrong). However, as interesting as it was, James was still an Auror so he broke the fight. And the Malfoys left with a huff.

As the main caretaker of his two little siblings, Harry was quite observant. He saw Lord Malfoy drop a leather journal into the book stack of the youngest Weasley, Ginny. So, when no one was looking, he took said journal, the Weasley girl was never the wiser.

...

Tom Riddle had been trapped inside this journal for 50 years. All alone in this memory of his first home. He wanted, no, needed human interactions. Even if they were annoying, they were better than this eternal silence and solitude. But he’s just a horcrux and something like that won’t happen any time soon.

"_Hello?_"

Tom could not believe this. Someone is writing in the journal. Literally right after he thought about how he wouldn’t get any kind of human contact. By the Fates!

...

Harry was sitting alone in his room with the mysterious journal opened on his desk. Harry had tried every curse detection spell his dad and Sirius had taught him but the results came back as negatives. Either this journal was something else or the curse was so complex that his spells detected nothing. And that was saying something because Harry knew a lot, and I mean _a lot_, of curse detecting spells. James and Sirius were some of the best Aurors after all. Their family was bound to have lots of enemies, which means that Harry had to know all those spells lest he want to die.

The boy sighed. He knew he should have given the journal to his dad but he could not bring himself to do so. He absently wonders if it was some sort of compulsion before dismissing that idea. The spells wouldn't have come back as clean if that was the case.

Perhaps he should try writing in the journal? He did not know why he though that but whatever. It was worth a try, right?

As he was about to write, a drop of ink fell into the blank pages of the journal before vanishing, which means that the journal is definitely charmed, at the very least. Harry didn't understand why someone would want a journal that vanishes their ink though. Maybe it was a communication device? And maybe the reason the ink disappears is so there will always be space to write? Maybe.

Tentatively, he wrote:

"_Hello?_"

The ink disappeared yet again. A couple tense seconds passed before words reappeared on th page. But Harry did not recognize this handwriting. It was far more elegant than his own.

"_Hello. My name is Tom Riddle. May I ask who you are?_"

"_I'm Harry. Are you the owner of this journal?_" Harry wrote back.

"_Not_ _exactly_." The other person responded. "_The__ real Tom Riddle is. As for me, I am simply a memory trapped inside this diary for 50 years._"

"_I'm sorry. It must have been horrible._" Harry wrote. He could not fathom how terribly lonely Tom must have felt. Harry might have been lonely last year it surely must be nothing compared to how Tom felt. Besides, Harry still had his brothers' letters. Tom had no one.

"_It's alright. At least, I have you now._" Tom wrote, and Harry couldn't help but smile.

...

The second year at Hogwarts had been... Well... It could have certainly gone better. If last year's Defense was already a joke then Harry did not even know how to describe this year. Lockhart did not teach them anything. He just called them up to roleplay his books. The one time he brought something to the class to teach was also the time when he let loose a whole cage of Cornish Pixies. Harry and the Golden Trio, otherwise known as Neville and his two friends, had to stay behind and clean up the mess. While Hermione insisted that Lockhart just wanted them to have hands-on experience, all Harry saw was the teacher's incompetence. He had already doubted the credibility of Lockhart's book. This only served to prove his doubts.

There was also the whole hullaboo with the Heir of Slytherin, the opening of the Chamber of Secret and the escape of whatever monster lying inside. Harry pondered if it was a Gorgon. All the victims were petrified and Harry can only think of one snake-related creature that could do that. Well, there was also the Cockatrice but he did not think that Salazar would use a snake-chicken thing instead of something more glamorous, magnificent and/or regal. But Harry could be wrong and perhaps the monster really _is _just a weird snake-chicken thing.

Oh, and Neville was also put under suspicion of being the Heir of Slytherin because he could speak Parseltongue, which the eldest Potter child thought was ridiculous. Neville was not a crazy bloodlusting blood-purist. He could not have been the one who set the monster in all those people (plus Mrs Norris, Hogwarts' caretaker's cat). Then again, Harry and Neville rarely interacted so what did he know.

Harry was also blacking out. Sometimes he would wake up and not remember what he was doing just moments before. He was feeling tired and sluggish all time, too. Some days, he just wanted to stay in bed and never get out again.

The only silver lining in all of this, apart from his brothers' letters, was his blooming friendship with Tom. Tom was the one Harry could spill his worries and secrets to, the one that understood him, the one that was always there for him, that would not ditch him for other friends. In just a matter of a few months, Tom had already found his way to Harry's heart.

...

Neville found a journal. It belonged to Tom Riddle, a Hogwarts student 50 years ago, a student during the time the Chamber was last open.

The journal, well, diary had a consciousness. A memory of the original owner trapped inside. So, Neville asked him about the Chamber. Tom pointed his fingers towards Hagrid being the Heir. It didn't make sense. But he could also see Hagrid freeing the Monster due to him feeling sorry that it was trapped inside the Chamber for so long. So, the Golden Trio decided to confront Hagrid.

...

Harry had dropped Tom's diary. It was an accident but he still dropped Tom's diary nonetheless. And now, it was missing.

And then Harry saw Neville with Tom, his only friend in Hogwarts. And Harry stole Tom back. Neville was not going to take Tom from him. Yes, he had to completely flip Neville's corner of the dorm over to find Tom but that's fine. Harry cleaned it up. He was a good kid after all. No one would ever know how much of a mess he made.

...

The diary was gone.

After the confrontation with Aragog, an acromantula living in the Forbidden Forest, and confirming that Hagrid was indeed not the Heir, Neville had gone back to the dorms only to find his corner way too clean.

Now, Neville was by no means messy, but he wasn't this clean either. Upon investigating, he found out that the the diary was missing. The Boy-Who-Lived vaguely remembers Tom talking about how the diary was already in possession of someone else.

...

Harry was apologizing non-stop for carelessly dropping Tom. The thought that Harry never purposefully abandoned him made Tom feel warm.

While he was able to milk some more information from "the Savior", Tom never really enjoyed his presence. He wasn't able warm Tom's heart like Harry did.

It seems like before he even realized it, Harry had already wormed his way into Tom's heart. And for the first time in a really long time, Tom did not mind.

...

"It's gonna be OK", said Tom.

Harry's head hurted. He was down in the Chamber of Secrets. Tom was corperal, no longer a memory sealed in the pages of a diary. He was kneeling, holding Harry close and running his hand through Harry's hair. He was also the Heir of Slytherin, the one terrorizing Howarts this year.

_But he changed, didn't he?_

_Yeah_, Harry reponded to the voice in his head. Tom didn't attack anymore. The incidents had already stopped by the second semester. There hadn't been any attacks in quite a while now.

"Relax", Tom said soothingly. "You will be fine. I will make sure of it. Rest my sweet Harry."

Harry trusted Tom. They were friends after all. And so, he closed his eyes and Tom's calming voice lulled him into a deep slumber. He never saw Ginny Weasley lying on the ground, a distance away from him, inside the same magic circle drawn on the Chamber's floor.

...

Neville was in the Chamber of Secret. He, along with Ron, had come down here once they heard that Ron's little sister (and Harry Potter, a boy in his dorm) had been kidnapped and brought down to the Chamber. They had also brought Lockhart with them but the Defense teacher tried to Obliviate them, take all the credits for himself and leave Ginny (and Harry) down there to rot. Unfortunately, he used Ron's broken wand, which then backfired spectacularly. So, Ron had to stay behind to take care of the teacher while Neville's ventures into the main chamber.

"GINNY!", Neville yelled as he rushed to her side. He tried to wake her up in vain. She was getting paler by the minute. They needed to get her medical attention soon.

Too preocupied with Ginny, the Boy-Who-Lived did not notice his dormmate just a short distance away. He didn't notice how Harry's skin was slowly returning to normal as Ginny's grew paler.

"She will not wake up", a deep, baritone voice said.

Neville recognizes this voice but it couldn't be. He turned to where the voice came from and realized that, yes, it could be. There stood Tom Riddle in all his glory.

"Is she dead?" Neville fearfully asked.

"Not yet", the Slytherin said. "But she will soon be."

Then the older boy revealed that he was absorbing Ginny's soul to become stronger, that he was the Heir of Slytherin and, most shockingly, he was (or would become) Lord Voldemort.

The Slytherin Heir then sicked a basilisk, the King of Snakes, the Monster lurking in the Chamber, on Neville. Fortunately for him, help arrived in the form of Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, and the Sorting Hat. The boy was able to pull out a Sword from the Hat and use it to slay the King of Servents. Although he was poisoned in the process, Fawkes tears was able to cure him. (He didn't notice the sword scraping the floor, breaking off part of the magic circle and stopping its effects)

Tom Riddle was angry, no, furious, that much was obvious. He glared at Neville with eyes filled with loathing and hatred. If looks could kill then the Gryffindor would have already been six feet under.

The young Dark Lord hissed again, calling out to Slytherin, summoning even more basilisks. Seeing no other choice, Neville grabbed Ginny and he turned tail and ran away. He grabbed Ron and Lockhart, and Fawkes flew them out.

It wasn't until they had gotten out of the Chamber and closed its entrance did they realized that they had left Harry behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Draco literally fixed a highly complex broken Vanishing cabinet in his sixth year. He was smart and diligent. Not that it made him any less of an arrogant little shit.  
\- I do not believe horcruxes are considered as curses so I just made it so in this universe


	3. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is what happens when you forget your quiet and reclusive classmate down an ancient chamber beneath your school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you look at that! X School is being less of a bitch than it usually is. Huh.  
Well, it is still a huge fucking bitch. On Wednesday, I was suppose to have classes at a professor's house (me and 9 others are going nationals in an English competition in my country) but he was busy that day. So, X School said we were having that class today instead. So I dragged my ass to his house and, guess what, the professor said that he knew nothing about this, that no one told him we had class today so I had to go back home. And did I mention it was pouring the whole goddamn time!?

Neville felt horrible. He was supposed to be the Savior of the Wizarding World. What kind of “Savior” forgets their classmate down an ancient chamber full of basilisks underneath the school? Neville always knew he was forgetful but he never thought it was that bad. And now, he was sitting in Dumbledore’s office with the Weasleys, and the Potters and their friends, about to tell them about what happened down in the Chamber of Secrets. The only silver lining in this situation is that Ginny was safe and had already woken up.

”We... we went down the chamber, Ron, professor Lockhart and I”, he recounted. “Lockhart was gonna Obliviate us, leave Harry and Ginny down there and take all the credits for himself. Unfortunately for him, he happened to use Ron’s broken wand and the spell backfired. He was rendered unconscious so Ron had to stay behind and look after him.

When I reached the main chamber, I saw Ginny there, lying there, getting paler and paler so I ran up to her, desperately shaking her to wake her up... Then, _he_ appeared and told me that she would not wake up... and... and...”

”Deep breaths, Neville”, said Mr Potter. “Who was _he_?”

”R-right...” The Boy-Who-Lived took a deep breath, steeled himself and continued: “It was Tom Riddle, a former Hogwarts student. He didn’t even look a day older than 16...”

”Tom Riddle!?” Professor Mcgonagall exclaimed.

”You know him, Minnie?” Sirius Black asked.

”They used to be classmates”, Dumbledore explained for her. “And if my suspicions are correct, Tom Riddle would eventually grow up to become...”

”Lord Voldemort”, Neville and Hogwarts’ Headmaster said in unison.

A chill ran through the room.

”Are you telling me that Voldemort kidnapped my godson, Headmaster!? How did _THAT _happen!?” Sirius exclaimed, slamming his hands on the table.

”Sirius/Uncle Padfoot...” Remus Lupin and little Aiden Potter said at the same time while tugging Sirius’ robes.

The Black Lord sighed before calming himself and sitting down.

”I myself wonder the same thing”, Dumbledore said. “To my knowledge, the Dark Lord is currently somewhere in the Albanian forests...”

”It was a diary, professor”, Neville explained. “He said he was a memory preserved in the diary, professor...”

”Fascinating...” The old Headmaster quietly said to himself. “Go on, my boy. What happened next?”

”He... He spoke in Parseltongue and summoned a basilisk”, continued Neville. “I thought I was gonna die but Fawkes and the Sorting Hat came to the rescue. Fawkes blinded the basilisk and I pulled this sword from the Hat.”

The Boy-Who-Lived showed everyone the beautiful ruby-incrusted sword.

”With the help of Fawkes, I was able to defeat the basilisk... Tom Riddle seemed really angry at that. He hissed again and called out even more basilisks. There's no way I could take on that many basilisks at once so I grabbed Ginny and we fled-“

”What about Harry?” Daniel Potter angrily interrupted. “What happened to my brother?”

”I... I... I...” Neville stuttered.

_ I forgot about him..._

”I had to leave him behind. I can’t carry both of them out at the same time and still manage to outrun the basilisks so I had to leave him behind. It was either leaving him or all of us dying...”

”Liar...” Daniel said. “You bloody LIAR!” The boy yelled, his magic running amok. It was wild, thrashing everything around. And it was furious. It was burning with the fury of a thousand suns, ready to lash out at anyone who dared to approach.

”YOU HAD A PHOENIX WITH YOU! THEY ARE CAPABLE OF CARRYING IMMENSELY HEAVY WEIGHT! YOU COULD HAVE ASKED HIM TO CARRY HARRY FOR YOU! YOU FORGOT ABOUT HIM, DIDN’T YOU, YOU BASTARD! THE SAVIOR ALREADY SAVED THE GIRL, SO WHO CARES ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE, RIGHT? RIGHT!?”

”Is... Is Harry not coming back?” A voice cut through the angry rant. A small, melancholic, _heartwrenching _voice. The voice of the five-year-old Aiden Potter, the child whose birthday was on this very day.

"No... He's not..." Daniel said, his voice barely a whisper. And little Aiden burst into tears.

Daniel tried to hold back his tears. But no matter how much he tried to hold back, he couldn't. The pain of losing his gentle elder brother was too much. Not wanting to show his weakness in front of Neville, he threw the boy one last dirty look before picking his younger brother up and bolting out of the room, slamming the doors shut behind them.

"Danny! A!" Mrs Potter exclaimed as she, Lord Black and Mr Lupin ran after them.

"I'm sorry but we will have to leave", Mr Potter said before putting a reassuring hand on Neville's shoulder. "It's OK. I'm sure it was a hard decision. They are just a bit emotional right now but they'll understand once they calm down."

Auror Potter gave him a smile, one that probably was meant to further reassure him, but Neville could see the underlying sadness in the oldest Potter's face. That smile... It just made him feel even worse about himself. The boy wanted to tell him the truth, to tell him about him forgetting Harry, to kneel on the ground and ask for forgiveness. But he couldn't find his voice. It just wouldn't come out.

"Excuse me", Mr Potter excused himself and ran after his family.

_I shouldn't be the Boy-Who-Lived_, Neville thought to himself. _I'm just a useless coward. Couldn't even remember to save Harry, who is probably dead now. Couldn't even tell his family what really happened to him. Maybe I should have been the one who died down there instead..._

...

The adult Potters, and Remus and Sirius, entered their dark house. Turning the lights on, it seemed like nothing changed yet nothing remained the same. The banner, the uneaten cake, the unopened presents. Everything was still as they were left just minutes ago and yet a sombre atmosphere encompassed the whole house instead of the original festive one.

They could here sobbings coming from upstairs. Following them, the adults found Danny and A hugging each other, crying their heart out inside the room of their persumably dead brother.

"Oh, dears", Lily said as the adults embraced the two young kids.

"It's OK", James assured despite the fact that he himself was also crying. "Everything will be OK..."

James became an Auror because he wanted to create a safe peaceful world for his children to grow up in. The hours were long but he reasoned it was worth it, he could catch even more of those scums that would pose a threat to his children.

Lily became a Charms Master so she could help create a more comfortable for her children. She locked herself up when she worked because if anything were to go wrong, she would be the only one affected and her children would be fine.

Looking at each other, they asked themselves if it was really worth it when they couldn't even be there for their children.

Embracing one another and crying, the Potters wondered what else awaits their young childer in the future.

...

Tom Riddle was pissed. It wasn't suppose to go like this.

He did not want to suck Harry's life force but that was the nature of the diary. The ritual was suppose to give Harry his life force back while taking that of the Weasley girl.

But then that fucking Boy-Who-Lived had to come in and ruin everything. Not only did he ruin the ritual by scraping part of ritual circle off and taking the sacrifice but he also killed Sasha, the oldest basilisk in the Chamber as well as the one all other basilisks considered a mother figure.

And now Harry was comatosed. He was alive, that much Tom was sure, but when Harry was going to wake up, he wasn't sure. He was not even sure if Harry was ever going to wake up again. And it is all because of that fucking Boy-Who-Lived's fault! Oh, he would fucking make that boy wish he was never born in the first place!

But now was not the time to get angry. He needed to find his older self. Maybe then he would find a way to wake his sweet Harry up. And if his older self didn't know the solution, well, he was willing to flip this whole world upside down to find it.

Yes. Tom was willing to do anything...

... all in the name of Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- CinemaSins: Roll credits!  
Sin Counter: Ding!  
\- The fact that you showed so much guilt proves that you are a good kid who made a mistake. Unfortunately, Neville, my sweet child, that was a huge mistake and your guilt means jack shit to Danny, A and Tom.  
\- Poor little A. He just had the worst birthday ever, didn’t he... I swear, I did not plan this. It's just that as I was writing this, my sadistic side wanted to punch everyone (including myself) in the guts. So it did.  
\- Harry being in a coma is a huge spoiler. One that I put in the tags. You can complain about everything else but you should have seen this coming.


	4. Motions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Neville enjoys a relatively peaceful third year, the gears of fate are set into motion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! I wrote someting. Next week, I supposedly have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off (or Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I don't remember the exact details) so there should be a new chapter (or chapters) around that time. Unless X School decides to go "Psyche!" and not let us have those days off.

Pathetic.

That's the only thing that crossed Tom's mind when he saw what had become of his older self.

Lord Voldemort was nothing but a wraith, a husk of his former self, with barely any resemblance of sanity. Defeated by a child, his body destroyed. And his soul! Dear Merlin, his soul! It had been fragmented so many times that it was now only around one percent of the original soul! ONE PERCENT! This shouldn't have happened. Tom was supposed to be the only horcrux. He was supposed to be a temporary failsafe until his real self found a way to achieve immortality with lesser repercussions. It seemed like he had been right. Splitting one's soul did have serious consequences: weakened magic, lost of humanity, insanity,...

The wraith tried to possess him. Fortunately, he, having half of the original soul, was stronger and was able to overpower and absorb it. An interesting turn of events, in Tom's opinion, but not an unwelcomed one. He was expecting to do some serious negotiating with his older self in order to gain his assistance but now, he didn't need to. All the memories, knowledge power his older self had possessed were now in his hands. They were his to use however he wanted!

But Merlin, Voldemort was crazy. Five horcruxes! Five! It's no wonder his soul was so splintered! To the point where he could unknowingly create a sixth one. Yes, Tom did the maths. He had too little left of his soul to only have five horcruxes.

While the wraith memories and knowledge did not provide him with a way to wake Harry up, he did find a temporary resting place for Harry. No longer would his love need to wait in that damp undergound Chamber.

Smiling to himself, the Slytherin Heir touched the portkey on his neck and, in an instant, he was next to Harry. Thank Salazar that the Chamber was not inside Hogwarts wards. Now, time to move Harry to his new home.

...

Dumbledore has finally managed to assemble a team of professionals to deal with the nest of basilisks umderneath the school. It had taken him a longer time than he'd like but it was to be expected. After all, the Chamber _was _generally considered a legend and a nest of basilisks _was _unheard-of, seeing that the creature doesn't reproduce naturally and had to be bred.

With the help of Neville, they entered the Chamber. Everyone was on high alert. Even though it was summertime and all students were back home, they _were_ entering a supposed basilisk nest.

However, aside from the one Neville killed, they found not a single King of Serpents down there. Not even when Neville repeated what Tom said to summon the creatures. Luckily, it did open up a passage leading to an abandoned nest. By examining the skins left behind, they were able to confirm that this had once been, in fact, full of basilisk.

The secret passage also led to what seemed to be a study. However, it was already completely empty by that time. The bookselves, the chests, the cabinets had all been stipped bare. Curiously enough, the study seemed to have been vacated very recently.

"How peculiar..." Someone said.

_Yes_, Dumbledore agreed, _peculiar indeed..._

...

The village of Little Hangleton was abuzz. There was a new resident in town, a relative of the Riddle family to be exact.

The Riddle family had been the wealthiest family in the village around half a century ago. They had owned a beautiful manor on a hill overlooking the village, a manor that had been abandoned for approximately 50 years, since the murder of its owners.

Oh, what a gruesome murder it was! But not in the way you might think. It was not a particularly gory murder, hell, not even a single drop of blood was spilt. The gruesomeness was the victim's faces. They were afraid, so very afraid, so much so that their faces were contorted almost beyond recognition. And the strangest thing about this murder? The cause of death was never determined. There were no signs of aggression, no drug or poison found in the Riddles, in fact, if you ignore the whole dying thing, the Riddles were in perfectly good shape! It was like they died of fear!

Now, back to the mysyerious relative, he was a young man, probably just out of school. While he did not interact with any resident of the village as of yet, he did possessed an aura that screamed: "I am better than all of you filth". Of course, because he had yet to interact with anyone, some people decided to reserve judgement for now. For all they know, he could be a nice, polite young man who was just shy. Oh, and he definately was related to the Riddles. As a matter of fact, he look eerily similar to the late Tom Riddle!

As soon as the man came, he had issued a renewal of the manor, remodeling many parts of it. He also kicked the old Frank Bryce out of the manor grounds, not surprising when the old gardener was the prime suspect of his relatives murder. He was gracious enough, however, to give the ex-gardener and murder suspect enough money to buy a small house in the village though.

Still, they never saw the giant snakes going into the Riddle manor and into the complex tunnels beneath it. Nor did they see the boy in the glass coffin being move into the said manor.

...

Danny and little A were alone at home. While Lily and James had wanted to change their jobs to something less time-consuming, they still need to tie some loose ends so the change wasn't happening any time soon. And that day, both parents had to go out. None of their friends were free to babysit their two remaining children that day so they had to either bring Danny & A with them or leave them alone at home. Although they asked their children to come with them, the two boys insisted in staying at home, saying that they were old enough to take care of each other. Not wanting to come out as too overbearing, Lily and James complied.

Some time after the adults left, a boy apparated into the living room. Danny immediately pushed A behind him, eyes not leaving the stranger. Whoever this unknown boy was, he was definitely powerful. And dangerous. Though the wards around their cottage were nothing compared to the Potter's mansion ancient ones, they were still no laughing matter. To think this boy was able to overpower them...

The mysterious boy was a couple years older than Harry had been. He was tall and handsome. He had pale skin, almost porcelain-like, and hair as dark as the abyss. His chocolate brown eyes met Danny's forest green ones and he smiled. It was a nice smile, Danny will give him that, but it did not make the Potter boy any less wary.

"Harry is still alive", the stranger said. "And _I_ can take you to him."

"Swear on your magic that you are not going to hurt us and that you are telling the truth", Daniel demanded despite knowing that he was in no position to do so. The older boy was way more powerful and he could just force them to do his bidding instead of negotiating.

Nonetheless, the unnamed boy took the Vow. Then he summon a flock of birds with the spell '_Avis_' to show that he still had his magic, which meant that he _was _telling the truth and he did come in peace.

And so, the Potter brothers took his hand and they apparated away.

...

The three boy arrived at an enchanting indoors garden. In the middle of it was a glass coffin, and inside that coffin was...

"Harry!" Daniel and Aiden exclaimed as they ran to Harry's side.

Harry had his arms crossed in the shape of an X over his chest, a pose not dissimilar from mummies of the Egyptian pharaohs. His skin was pale, almost as if it was glowing in the light. His face was peaceful, gentle and benign. Lying inside the coffin made out of glass, their elder brother looked absolutely enthralling, angelic and otherworldly. It was as if he was a benevolent ethereal being, blessing this cursed world of impurities with his light.

The remaing boy finally introduced himself as Tom Riddle, the Tom Riddle from the diary. According to Tom, he never intended to hurt Harry. Harry was suppose to come out unscathed but then that fucking Boy-Who-Lived had to come in and ruin the ritual, making Harry fall into a coma. One that even Lord Voldemort didn't know how to undo. After explaining his side of the events in the Chamber, the boy from the diary swore on his magic once more to prove his honesty.

Tom Riddle genuinely loved their brother. He genuinely wanted to wake Harry up, to destroy the Boy-Who-Lived and all that "the Savior" held dear. And he was asking for their help.

Should they help him, they would be forsaking, at the very least, the Wizarding World. This, Danniel and Aiden knew. But if they help him, they could save Harry, their beloved brother, their world. _Sacrificing one world for another_, they thought, _a fair trade it was_.

And so, they shook his hand. The deal was made.

...

Neville was enjoying his third year at Hogwarts. After the two previous ones, it was nice to finally enjoy a relatively quiet and peaceful school year. The Boy-Who-Lived was happy. Blissfully so.

After all, ignorance is a bliss...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Jeebus, this chapter was a lot longer than expected  
\- I decided that each time a horceux is made, the soul splits in half, which means that, at this point, Voldy only has 1.5625% of his soul left. Tom, being the first horcrux, has 50%. I'm Asian, you can trust me on this.  
\- Lily and James really lack the experience needed to be parents, don't they?  
\- The muggles called Tom young man because they didn't think a 16-year-old was as capable as Tom was. So, they thought he just looks young for his age.


	5. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparations were made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? X School didn't go "Psyche!"

The Potters were proud to be a Light family.

The Potters hadn't always been a Light family. Once upon a time, they were one of the Darkest of the Darks, involving themselves in the kind of magic so Dark that even Durmstrang Institute, a school known for teach the Dark Arts as part of their curriculum, would have expelled them. This is not much of a surprise when you consider the fact that they were descendants of the Peverell family, an old family famous for being necromancers and involving themselves with Death magic and Soul magic.

However, somewhere along the lines, the Potters suddenly switched sides, becoming a Light family. The reasons for this is still unknown but, knowing the Potters of that time, it was probably just for shit and giggles. Still, the change was made and the later generations completely forgot about their Dark origins and never bothered to switch back.

Why am I telling you this? Well, this explains why half of the library in the Potter mansion is Dark. It also explain about the secret passage in the library which leads to a secret library filled to the brim with Darker books, which also has a secret passage leading to another library with even Darker books, and this just kinda goes on for a while. It is frankly just ridiculous. Like, we know Potters, you were Dark, we get it. Just... release the calamity that is your mammaries.

Why is this important? Because there was a chance that a way to wake Harry up lied in the Dark books in the Potter mansion’s library. And Daniel was nothing but determined to find it. James and Lily would be so disappointed if they were to find out but, frankly, Daniel did not give a damn about it. While his older brother had drilled into him that their parents cared for them, loved them and tried their hardest to be spend time with them, James and Lily were not sufficiently involved in his life for him to give a single flying fuck about their opinions. Besides, that was simply if the adults Potter found out. The Potter mansion was where James had to watch his parents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, slowly wither and die due to Dragon Pox whilst he could do nothing. Needless to say, these were painful memories that James did not want to remember, and so, James never returned to the mansion.

The operation was even easier thanks to the Potter’s Cloak of Invisibility. It was a family heirloom, one that had been passed down to Harry and then, later, Daniel as a result of Harry being in a coma and thought to be dead. As he hides under the Cloak, Danny quietly walk to the fireplace and threw a bit of floo powder in. With a whisper of “The Potter mansion”, he was gone.

...

Aiden wanted to help but he was too young to be able to properly control his magic or read the books in the Potter library as they contained too many big and complicated words. So, he settled for the next best thing: Potions. Most didn’t require any use of magic and the majority of ingredients used were easily accessible. In addition, his godfather was a Potions Master and the Potions teacher at Hogwarts. It wouldn’t be too suspicious if he suddenly developed an interest in the subject and asked Severus to teach him.

With that in mind, Aiden waited for his mother to come out of her study to ask her to request Severus to teach him. Lily had been hesitant about it so he had to resort to the power of his puppy dog eyes. He had to admit, this was one of the most useful things Harry had taught him. So far only Harry had been able to resist him and strike back with even more powerful puppy dog eyes. But Lily was not Harry so it was natural that she relented and agreed to ask Severus about this. Whether or not Severus agreed was an entirely different matter, his mother had said, but A knew better. Severus could never deny a request from the woman whom he still held affection for, after all. And so, little A found himself a Potions teacher.

…

It was the quidditch World Cup. Neville had been invited by the Weasleys to go with them. After asking his grandmother for permission, he had spent the day at the Weasleys’ house before portkeying to the Stadium and set up camp.

Neville had come across the Potters with Lord Black and Mr Lupin there and they exchanged greetings. The adults were civil enough though Daniel and Aiden really seemed to hate him, judging by how quickly their expressions turned sour. Seeing that he was not really welcome there, Neville wisely decided to cut things short and go back to the Weasleys.

The game, Ireland versus Bulgaria, was really exhilarating, ending with Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum catching the Snitch and salvage Bulgarian dignity, despite losing to Ireland. Surprisingly, the results had been predicted by the twins Fred and George Weasley, two of Ron’s older brothers.

Unfortunately, the celebration did not last long. They were suddenly attacked by Death Eaters, Voldemort’s followers, which led to some sort of chaotic riot, forcing Neville and his friends had to evacuate into the woods.

After running for a while, the Boy-Who-Lived noticed that he had dropped his wand. Then, when he wasn’t done panicking, he heard two voices speaking something similar to an incantation. One of the voices was that of an adult male and he was shouting the words, making it quite hard to identify whom the second voice belonged to. However, if he heard correctly, the other voice was higher in pitch and the speaker, possibly a woman, seemed to have a sore throat.

“_ MORSMORDRE! _” They voices said. Instantaneously, two symbols appeared in the sky. Neville recognized them. That symbol of a snake coming out of a skull. The Dark Mark. Voldemort’s Mark.

Chaos erupted.

The adults would later identify Neville’s wand as the one that cast the spell when they found it in the hands of Winky, the house elf of Bartemius Crouch, the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Although Winky was declared innocent through logical deductions, Mr Crouch still decided to set her free, despite all her crying and begging.

“Has anyone seen Daniel and Aiden?” Lily Potter asked.

The crowd panicked once more as they search for the two Potter siblings. It was no surprise that they were worried. Death Eaters were just here not too long ago. The two of them could be in serious danger.

Fortunately, they were found after an hour of searching. It seemed like they merely got lost in the woods.

…

Daniel was pissed. Not only was the day ruined by the appearance of the bloody Boy-Who-Lived, but also by some stupid Death Eaters who thought it was a great idea to attack an international event. Remembering that the Death Eaters who escaped Azkaban are not the most loyal bunch, Daniel decided to just scare them with the prospect of Voldemort coming back. Taking his new wand out, he lowered his voice and made it sound more gruffy, as if he had a cold, and cast the spell to summon the Dark Mark. He was confident that he could cast it. He had been practicing magic as soon as he got a wand after all. In addition, he also knew quite a lot about spells and magic theory. No surprise there considering he had spent over an entire year reading through the Potters extensive library by now.

Someone else was casting it too. An adult man who was not to far from them. Knowing how the other Death Eaters are, this man was probably one of the more loyal ones. Risking it, the two Potters ran towards the man. As soon as they made eye contact with the man, shots of red light erupted between the trees. Being smaller, the two Potter brothers were able to duck and avoid all the lights. The man was not so lucky, and neither was the elf attached to him.

Casting a quick _ Rennervate _, Daniel revived him.

“Come on,” he said, extending his hand. “We need to leave before the Aurors find us! I can take you to the Dark Lord!”

The man hesitated for a second before taking the extended hand.

“What about the elf?” Aiden asked.

“Leave her,” responded the man.

Nodding, the two brothers dragged the man deeper into the woodlands.

…

“Can you Apparate us to Little Hangleton?” Danny asked after a couple minutes of running.

“Yes,” the man answered.

“Well, let’s go,” the boy commanded. “**_He _** is there.”

And so, they disappeared.

…

They arrived at the outskirts of the village. Not wasting a second, they boys dragged the unknown wizard to the Riddle manor. After explaining everything to Tom and having Tom proving that he really was the Dark Lord (not really Voldemort but close enough) by pushing his magic into the man’s tattoo, they gained a new party member. To be safe, Tom also used a spell to basically wipe out the history of spells cast in the last hour of Danny’s wand.

Once all that was over, the man, now identified as Barty Crouch Jr, Apparated them back to the woods outside the quidditch stadium. They bid goodbye as Danny and A walk back to the camps, pretending had been lost, and Barty returning to the Riddle manor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- In case you are wondering, "realease the calamity that is your mammaries" is just a more academic way to say "calm your tits".  
\- Yay! Barty is here. I like him.


	6. The Start of a New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neville starts his fourth year at Hogwarts. Danny starts his first.

Neville was at the train station with Hermione and the entire Weasley family. After the fiasco that was the Quidditch World Cup, he had spent a relatively relaxing summer at the Weasleys’. Well, as relaxing as it could have been with the chaos created by said incident. Mr Weasley had to stay at work for a whole week to deal with the complains and the shitshow that followed the article covering the events by one Rita Skeeter. From what he had heard, Rita was an absolute nightmare, spreading malicious gossip and ruining people's lives everywhere.

And now, they had just arrived at King's Cross after an uncomfortable journey in muggle taxis. There was only Mrs Weasley with them as Mr Weasley was suddenly called to help out with Mad-Eye Moody, a retired auror and member of the Order of Phoenix. However, Bill and Charlie, two of Ron's older and out-of-Hogwarts brothers, decided to come and see them off. As they waved goodbye from their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, the present adult Weasleys, including Bill and Charlie, had hinted that there was going to be some really big event happening this school year though they refused to say what. Ron noted that Bagman was also alluding to this mysterious event when they were at the World Cup.

During the ride, when they were talking to their fellow Gryffindor, Dean and Seamus, Malfoy interrupted them before belittling Ron for his second-hand and, honestly, quite ugly dress robes. Then he asked Neville whether the Boy-Who-Lived was going to enter the mysterious event. Once Draco found out that they had no idea what he was talking about, he had laughed at them and proceeded to brag about how his important father knows everything.

"Are you done making a ruckus, Malfoy?" An icy voice said. Turning towards the source, a compartment situated diagonally from theirs, they saw that it belonged to Daniel Potter. Neville vaguely remembered that the boy was starting his first year at Hogwarts that very year.

"Well, hello there, Potter", Malfoy smugly said. "Don't mind me though I suppose I am done here. How about you? Are you going to enter? Gotta bring some glory to your family now that your brother is out of the picture and you are the Heir, right?"

Neville winced. He knew how sensitive the subject of Harry is to the young Potter.

"Unlike you", Daniel coldly replied, "I have a brain and know how to use it. I am not going to enter some tournament where I will certainly die. Though I guess if you want the Malfoy family to end with you, go ahead."

"Oh, and if you talk like that about Harry again, Malfoy", Daniel continued, his voice gaining a dangerous edge. Neville felt the temperature drop by several degrees. "I shall acquaint your facial features with a fundamental rectangular item used in the construction of walls. Repeatedly."

The first year then grabbed his things, pushed Malfoy out of the way and moved to another carriage.

"Wait", Ron called out as Daniel was opening the door between the 2 carriages.

"Hm?" Daniel stopped but did not turn back.

"Do you know what's gonna happen this year?" Ron asked. "The tournament?"

"Obviously", the Potter boy replied. "With something this big, I'm taken aback by your ignorance. Either your parents must really want to surprise you and are really good at keeping secrets, or you must be quite an ignoramus."

The boy walked out, slamming the door behind him.

...

"What does ignoramus means?" Ron asked Hermione a bit after Malfoy and his two lackeys had also left.

"It means an ignorant and stupid person", Hermione replied. Ron got red as he realized that the younger boy had insulted him.

"I'm honestly more suprised by what he said to Malfoy", Hermione commented.

"That bit about something about facial features and rectangular item?" Neville asked.

"Yes", the girl confirmed. "Repeatedly acquaint Malfoy's facial features with a rectangular item fundamental in building walls."

"What about it?" The Weasley boy asked.

"He was basically telling Malfoy that he would bash Malfoy's face repeatedly with a brick", Hermione explained. "He just said it in a more academic way so that Malfoy wouldn't immediately realize he was being insulted. It actually took me a second to get that."

"Seriously!?" Ron exclaimed astounded.

"Yes", Hermione responded. "Though I don't agree with him immediately resorting to threats."

"Give it a rest, Hermione", Neville said. "Malfoy touched on a sore subject for him..."

"I suppose you're right..." Hermione said as she guiltily looked away.

The rest of the ride was silent.

...

It was pouring by the time they reached Hogsmeade Station. They could barely see what was a few meters in front of them with how heavy it was raining. The Boy-Who-Lived truly pitied the first years who had to cross the lake in this weather.

...

The Sorting began after the Sorting Hat had sung his piece. Little first years were slowly being sorted into the four houses. Dennis Creevey, the younger brother of Colin Creevey - a third year with a knack for photography who is also a huge Boy-Who-Lived fanboy, followed his brother's footsteps and was sorted into Gryffindor. Seeing the two boys together, filled to the brim with joy should have made Neville happy for them, but he could feel nothing but guilt and regret. Because that could have been the Potters. They could have been celebrating together instead of one dead and the other in mourning.

_Yes, it could have been them_, his mind helpfully reminded him. _They could have been happy together if you hadn't been such a complete incompetent._

"Potter, Daniel!" Professor's McGonagall's voice brought him back to the real world.

As the young Potter walked to the stool, Neville and him made eye contact. The green-eyed boy briefly glared at Neville before turning away.

...

The Potter boy was a hat-staller. He had already sat under the hat for 15 minutes. Daniel had an impassive look on his face, as if sitting in front of hundreds of people didn't make him even feel nervious for one bit.

"SLYTHERIN!" The Hat howlered to the surprise of many. They never expected someone from such a light family to get sorted into Slytherin after all.

Wordlessly, the boy placed the hat back on the stool and elegantly walked to the Slytherin, robes billowing behind him. Unlike professor Snape who looked like a giant bat whenever he did this, Daniel actually looked regal with his robes floating in the wind.

As Daniel seated himself in the Slytherin table, the Sorting Ceremony continued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- It takes a lot of bravery to stand against the world. But it also takes a lot of ambition to do that. That's why Danny was a hat-staller and that's also why he ended up in Slytherin.


	7. Beneath the Willow Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I shall wait for you here, beneath the willow tree...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I blame "To You, the Immortal" and "Paladin of the End" for putting me in the mood to write this chapter. I just caught up with the latest manga chapters and well...

"Harry!"

There was someone calling him.

"Harry, wake up!"

Groaning, Harry Potter groggily opened his eyes. He was in this room at their cottage. His brother, Danny, was by his bed.

Harry yawned.

"What time is it?" He asked as he stretched.

"It’s eight", Danny replied. "Mom told me to call you down for breakfast."

With that said, Danny ran back downstairs as Harry did his morning routine. He went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and washed his face. He then spent the next few minutes trying to get his messy hair under control. It was all in vain. He couldn’t help but sigh. Of all the things he inherited from his father’s side of the family, it just had to be the 24/7 bedhead.

...

"Finally up, I see", Lily Potter greeted her eldest son as he walked down the stairs.

"Morning, Mom", Harry replied as he sat down. A plate of delicious fluffy pancakes was placed in front of him.

The boy began to eat.

"So, what are your plans for today, Harry?" James asked his son.

"I’m not sure", the boy answered. "Maybe I’ll go hang out with Tom today."

"If you don’t mind, can you take your brothers with you?" James asked. "Work just called. Apparently, Jenkins misplaced some important paperwork that needed to be hand in today so now we have to do it all over again." The oldest Potter sighed.

"It’s OK, Dad, accidents happen", Harry said before turning towards his mother. "But what about you, Mom?"

"Today’s the Charms Conference, remember?" Lily answered. "All Charms Masters need to be there."

"Right", the boy said. "I remember you mentioning that... Alright, I’ll take them with me."

"Thank you, dear", his mother said as she kissed him in the forehead. She then glanced at the clock on the wall. It’s half past eight.

"Well, I better go get ready", Lily said before walking upstairs.

...

"Come on", Harry called his brothers. "Let’s go."

"Coming, coming!" Daniel and Aiden yelled as they raced to the door.

"You two seem awfully excited", Harry remarked as he closed the front door.

"Of course!" Daniel excitedly answered. "We’re getting to hang out with Tom!"

"He’s really cool", Aiden added.

"Is that so?" Harry asked with a hint of amusement. "Even cooler than me?"

"Obviously", Danny replied. "You’re no cool at all."

"Nuh uh", Aiden shook his head.

Harry loudly gasped, putting his hand on his chest with a dramatic expression of fake-hurt. It lasted for about a second before the three Potter brothers started snickering.

"Hey, Harry", Aiden softly said after they were done laughing. “You know were just joking, right? You are way cooler than Tom. You’re the coolest.”

"Yeah", Danny agreed.

Harry couldn’t help but smile: "I know, I know..."

...

After walking for a couple minutes, the three Potters reached the edge of the village. There, sitting beneath the canopy of an ancient willow tree by a lake, was Tom.

"Hey, Tom", Harry greeted.

"Ah..." Tom looked up. "Harry, Daniel, and Aiden. Hello."

"What are you doing?" Little A asked.

"Well, I was just relaxing", Tom responded. "Why don’t you take a seat?"

"Sure", Harry replied as he sat down besides Tom. His two brothers followed suit.

Harry had to give it to Tom. It really was relaxing. Hiding from the harsh summer sun in the shades of this great ancient willow. Listening to the sounds of the birds singing, of the wind blowing through the reeds, of the occasional ripple spreading across the lake. Feeling the cool summer breeze softly wafting the humid smell of the lake, the gentle fragrance of lilies from a field close by, the balmy aroma of food from the nearby market. Everything seemed to slow down. Everything was calm.

Harry closed his eyes and leaned on Tom’s shoulders, simply enjoying the moment.

...

A while later, the four boys were walking though the bustling marketplace, a complete contrast to the willow by the mirror-like lake. The market was noisy, full of music and chattering. The market was lively, full of people from all sorts of lives. The market was hectic, was restless, was anything but calm and peaceful.

Danny and Aiden had asked to go there. They wanted to get something for Harry’s birthday, which was the following day. Tom and Harry didn’t object. The two older boys only smiled in amusement. Especially when the boys took turns in “distracting” Harry whenever they saw something interesting.

...

"Thank you, Tom. Today was lovely", Harry said as he opened the door to his house. As soon as the door opened, Danny and little A ran up to their rooms to properly prepare their gifts, leaving Harry and Tom behind. "Would you like to come in for a drink?"

"I would love to, Harry", Tom replied. "Unfortunately, I have to get home to finish packing."

"Oh, right", the green-eyed said as he remembered... "You are moving away tomorrow, aren’t you?"

"Sadly", Tom confirmed. "Sorry I won’t be there for your birthday."

"No, no, it’s alright", Harry laughed off. "You have places to be. Don’t worry yourself about me."

"Say, Harry", Tom hesitantly said. "... Could you meet me at midnight tonight? Beneath the willow by the lake? I have something to show you."

"Sure", Harry answered. "See you then."

"Yeah... See you then..." Tom smiled as he bade adieu.

...

It was almost midnight. Harry had sneaked out to meet Tom. He was curious to see what Tom had in store for him.

The moment the boy reached his destination, his felt his breath taken away. The scene was enchanting. The golden summer moon shone above the lake, which was shimmering and sparkling as if there were untold treasures and riches hidden underneath the surface. The fireflies danced in the endless, cloudless night sky with millions of stars, creating a vibrant cosmic array. A veil of mist covered the ground, softly reflecting the lights, giving the place a mystical feeling. And there, standing beneath the willow tree, was Tom.

Harry ran towards the other boy, who caught him him in a tight embrace.

"Hello, Tom", Harry smiled as Tom let him go. "Is this what you wanted to show me? It’s beautiful."

"Hello, Harry", Tom responded with a light chuckle. "Yes, it truly is, isn’t it? But that’s not the only reason why I called you here."

The boy reached inside his pocket, pulling out a small, intricately wrapped box. The bells struck midnight.

"Happy birthday, Harry", Tom said as he gave Harry the present.

"Oh, you sap", Harry smiled.

"Go on", Tom encouraged. "Open it."

And open it, Harry did. Inside the box was a small golden ring encrusted with a translucent black gemstone. There was some sort of silver symbol inside the gem: A circle inside a triangle, split in half by a single straight line.

"Tom!" Harry chocked. "I can’t accept this. This ring must have cost you a fortune!"

"Not really", Tom dismissed. "It’s a family heirloom so it didn’t even cost me a penny."

"Tom!" Harry exclaimed. "That’s all the more reasons for me not accepting it! That’s your _family heirloom_!"

"Please", Tom said as he closed Harry’s hand around the ring. "I want you to have it. Consider it a memento of all the time we spent together. A memento of me. Keep it with you, to remind you of me whenever you miss me. It’s _my_ family heirloom. So, please, hold on to it until I’m back."

"Why would you come back?" Harry asked. "You are going to study with one of the most famous wizards of all time, go on to make fantastic discoveries, meet the most influential wizards and witches out there, and forget all about us. Why would you come back to this small village?"

"Because you’re here, Harry", Tom replied. "Because you are still here so I will come back for you. This, on my magic, I promise."

"Then I shall wait for you", Harry responded. "I shall wait for you here, beneath the willow tree..."

...

..

.

Tom smiled as he put the Gaunt family ring on Harry’s finger. His Harry, still sleeping, still oh so ethereal in his coffin of glass.

"Soon, my dear", he said as he lovingly kissed Harry in the forehead. "The preparations are almost complete. I will soon get rid of the Boy-Who-Lived. And we, we will be together once more..."

Looking at Harry, Tom could have swore, just for a second there, his sleeping beauty had smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- And all that wonderful time together was just a dream. Merry Christmas and happy Yule, everybody!  
\- “To You, the Immortal” and “Paladin of the End” are 2 amazing mangas. They have this feeling of humanity in them that it is just so great. Even though the main characters are overpowered (like, really overpowered), the stories do not feel like those trashy isekai and fantasy Power Fantasies. They have thoughts and emotions, they have lovable characters, and they show the humanity. While these 2 stories probably don’t suit the taste of everyone and are by no means perfect, they are objectively good, and I will physically fight you if you say otherwise. Of course, this is only true at the time I’m writing this (Christmas 2019). They could very well pull a Guilty Crown on us and just go downhill in the future.  
\- This chapter was supposed to come a bit later but eh, I was in the mood. And it's not like putting it out now really affected the storyline. Consider this my Christmas gift to all of you.  
\- Also, shameless self-plug because it's Christmas, that time of rampant consumerism among other things, I have another fic called "What do you think about at night? Dreams, hopes, despair". It's a BNHA x Madoka Magica fanfic and it has drawings, longer chapters, and no major OCs. Why not give it a try?


	8. The Triwizard Tournament & Mad-Eye Moody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The announcement for the Triwizard Tournament and the appearance of Mad-Eye Moody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2020 is starting out great isn't it. But today it's my birthday so what the hell. Here's a new chapter.

The Feast started once all the first-year students had been sorted.

"You got really lucky, you know?" Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, commented. "There was trouble in the kitchen earlier. I had actually thought you wouldn't get to eat?"

"What happened?" A concerned Hermione asked.

"Peeves, of course", the ghost replied. "Just his usual mayhem and chaos. Scared the house elves out of their minds..."

"There are house elves in Hogwarts!?" Hermione asked, scandalized.

"Yes", Nick answered. "The largest number in Great Britain, if my memory serves me right..."

It was then that Neville realized that there were no going back. The Boy-Who-Lived saw the fire in his friend's eyes, he knew how strongly the witch felt about house elves after seeing Mr Crouch and his house elf Winky. And, just as expected, Hermione exploded and refused to take another bite of the food made by, as she said, "slave labour".

One thing that Neville admired about Hermione, besides her intellect and talent, was her courage. Even though she might appear to be more suited for Ranvenclaw, Neville could see the reason why she was sorted into the house of the braves. The young witch had a very clear set of morals and she was not afraid to stand up for her beliefs and fight until the very end. However, that was also one of her biggest flaws. Hermione Granger was stubborn. She fought for what she believed until the end, refusing to listen to opposing ideas. She's rigid.

The Chosen One tried to no avail to disuade her, to convince her that the situation wasn't as bad as she had thought. Releasing a sigh, the Boy-Who-Lived turned his focus back to his meal. There were no point in trying to argue with her.

...

When everyone, with the exception of Hermione, had finished their dinner and were full, Dumbledore stood up once more and reminded the Hogwarts student body of some ground rules such as staying away from the Forbidden Forest. And then, Dumbledore announced that the Quidditch Cup would be cancelled for the year. The Hall was stunned into silence before, unsurprisingly, the was a huge uproar.

Once the student body had become relatively calm, the headmaster continued.

"This is because of an event that will start in October and continue for the rest of the school year that will take up a lot of the teacher time and energy", the old wizard explained. "Nonetheless, I believe you will greatly enjoy it. Now, for the first time in two centuries, it is my pleasure to announce that this year at Hogwarts-"

_Bang!_

The doors to the Great Hall was slammed open just as a lightning tore the sky in half, and deafening thunder sharply crack.

Standing in the doorway was a man with an intimidating and commanding aura, completely silencing all the students. Leaning on a staff, the man walk towards the teachers' table, footsteps loudly echoed across the Hall. The man's right eye was dark and beady, and was slightly narrowed, his gaze like that of a dangerous predator. His left eye was an electric blue, frenzily darting all across the Great Hall in a manner no normal eye could do. Neville never notoced how it briefly lingered on Daniel and himself.

The Boy-Who-Lived was pretty sure he knew who the stranger was.

The man walked up to Dumbledore and shook hands with him. The two then quickly exchange some words in a low tone, so low that Neville could not tell what those words were.

“May I introduce you to our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?” Dumbledore said brightly into the silence. “Professor Moody!”

No staff or student clap, except for Dumbledore and Hagrid. Instead, the Hogwarts students decided to whisper to each other. Neville was right, the man, who seemed indifferent to the rather cold welcome, was indeed Mad-Eye Moody, an retired auror, member of the Order of the Phoenix.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention.

"As I was saying", the headmaster said, "we have the honor of hosting a very exciting event this school year: the Triwizard Tournamemt!"

"NO WAY!" The Weasley twins loudly exclaimed, causing everyone to chuckle.

"Yes way, Misters Weasley", the old wizard jovially responded.

Professor McGonagall loudly cleared her throat, immediately silencing all students. Then, professor Dumbledore went on to explain the history of this extremely dangerous Tournament, as well as the reason it was banned for 200 years, before reassuring that they had improved the safety and guaranteed that no death would occur, unlike during previous Triwizard Tournaments. However, he did stress that no student under seventeen can participate in this event.

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for most of the duration of this year", the headmaster said. "I hope you will all extend your curtesy to our guests and make them feel at home, and support the Hogwarts champion with all your heart no matter who he or she may be. Now, I do believe it is time for you to get some well-deserved rest before tomorrow's lessons begin. Off you go."

With that, the students stood up and left the Great Hall, most still animatedly chatting about the upcoming Tournament. This wasn't much of a surprise since not only was the Triwizard Tournament dangerous, the prize for winning it was fame and riches.

Neville just hoped that this year would be as quiet as the last one. Neville certainly hoped so. The boy does not want to be thrust into a random adventure like in his first and second year at this school. Fingers crossed, Neville hopes.

...

A figure watched the students leave. Both the Boy-Who-Live and the Little Lord. Preparations are complete.

He can't wait for this year...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- As I was rereading GoF for this fanfic, I came across Ron telling Hermione that there was "spotted dick" in the Feast... Get your minds out of the gutter, that is a pudding.  
\- Fun fact: When I looked up what spotted dick is, I also found out that there was a dish called faggot. WTF, England?  
\- This is the second time I'm writing this since a thing happened and the entire chapter was gone with the wind.


	9. Owls and First Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day of the school year and interesting (?) relationships are revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am currently on Lunar New Year holiday and have more time to write. However, I also have to visit relatives so I don't have that much more time.

The first day of school had much better weather than the previous night. While the sky is still covered with gloomy grey clouds, it was no longer pouring.

The night in the Slytherin dorms had gone without incident. Sure, people still mocked him for being a Potter in Slytherin but Daniel had long perfected the act of pretending everyone who wasn't his brothers did not exist. Those hurtful remarks had absolutely no effect on him.

Some of the bolder Slytherins had also tried to hex him a couple times to no avail. He had spent around two years in the Dark sections of the Potters' Libraries. Fending off a bunch of snobby, arrogant, and ignorant pureblood kids were simple enough.

Suddenly, there was a noise from above. It was the sounds of hundreds of owls flapping their wings, carrying that morning's mail with them.

Absentmindedly, Danny noticed that a lot of Slytherin students, especially the younger ones, had received packages of goods, mostly sweets of various kinds, with their letters from home.

The Potters' family owl descended in front of him. The boy gave it a few strips of bacon before taking out the letter attached to its leg. Opening the letter, Daniel noted that it was from his mother. He quickly skimmed through the letter and found nothing of great importance. His mother asking about his night and how he was adjusting himseld in his House, his father and Sirius being a bit salty about him being in the House of Snakes, the adults promising to support him no matter which House he was in, and Aiden missing him. Overall, nothing of much importance.

Just as the family owl was sent away, another owl swooped down in front of the first-year. A giant beautiful yet ferocious-looking great horned owl. Tom's owl, Rexus.

The owl stuck his feet out and Danny took the letter before feeding the owl a generous amount of food. The owl seemed pleased.

Then Draco and his two croonies walk towards them. The Malfoy heir had a sort of smug look on his face, the same look he had whenever he decided to be a dick and make fun of someone. Just as the platinum forth-year was about to make some stupid remark, Rexus flew straight towards the pureblood's face and began scratching and pecking. Malfoy's bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, tried, and failed, to pry Rexus away from Malfoy, an action which only served to anger the barred owl even more. Rexus screeched and mercilessly attacked all three of them. By now, the ruckus had caught the attention of everyone in the Great Hall, including the teachers.

Daniel wisely decided to retreat. He did not want to get caught in the crossfire.

The great horned owl is considered one of the most dangerous birds in the world and Rexus was especially aggressive. The owl would not hesitate to attack anyone and everyone he (Rexus) didn't like. Danny was pretty sure the only reason the great horned owl tolerated Aiden and him now was because it liked Hedwig, Harry's owl.

Despite being extremely aggressive, Rexus was nowhere near Hedwig's level. According to the manager of the Owl Emporium where they got Hedwig, the snowy owl had attacked everyone that came close to it, even critically injuring a few. Harry was the sole exception. Harry was the only one Hedwig took a liking to. Hedwig also liked the two youngest Potters but it was highly likely it was purely because they were Harry's brothers. Danny also had no doubt that the only reason why the owl stopped attacking everyone was because his gentle older brother disliked that.

Talking about owls, the relationship between Hedwig and Rexus was... Well, it was certainly something, alright. At that time, Rexus only liked Tom. He attacked anything and anyone, including Tom's snake familiar Nagini. So, of course, Rexus tried to attacked the two youngest Potter as well. Unfortunately for the barred owl, as he was diving down, Hedwig intercepted him mid-dive then proceeded to beat him to a pulp. After that first meeting, Tom's owl was seen trying to get on Hedwig's good side and giving her treats. Daniel thought this behavior was due to fear. Aiden insisted that Rexus had fallen for Hedwig. As you can probably deduce, Daniel later found out that Tom's owl was, in fact, very infatuated with Harry's owl. Unluckily, all his attempts at wooing her was largely ignored.

Back to the present, Daniel snucked into a rarely visited part of the library to escape all the commotion. There was still some time left before classes begin so he took out Tom's letter.

_Well then_, Daniel thought as he finished reading the letter. _I guess I have to pay a certain professor a visit_.

...

For Neville, the day started out fine. The storm was gone and he had a delicious breakfast. There was also the fact that Draco was attacked by a very aggressive owl but that was none of his business. The blond had scratches and pecking marks all over his face. Neville wasn't too worried since the school nurse could easily fix his face. Then, after breakfast, they had Herbology, Neville's favourite subject.

However, things would only go down hill from there.

After the wonderful lesson that was Herbology, they had Care of Magical Creatures. As much as he liked Hagrid, the Boy-Who-Lived had to admit that the man's love for certain creatures were a great cause for concern. Especially the creatures they had in class that day. What was this horrible creature they were supposed to take care of? Blast-Ended Skrewt, a deformed, pale, slimy-looking, smelly, meaty, shell-less lobster-scorpion thing with no visible head and a bottom that would occasionally shoot out sparks, propelling them forward a little. It was horrible.

Then, in the afternoon, he had Divination. Once again, professor Trelawney predicted a horrible way in which he would die. To make things worse, the professor also gave them a ton of homework. He blamed Ron for telling Lavender he wanted to "_have a look at Uranus_".

It was about to be dinner time.

Neville and his friends, along with the rest of the student body, were in the entrance hall, standing in lines waiting for the doors to open. The Golden Trio had just joined the end of the lines when Malfoy came running with _The Prophet_ in his hand, looking way better than he had this morning. The platinum blond then read out loud the degrading article about Ron's dad which was written by Rita Skeeter. Unsurprisingly, he was also making snide remarks about the whole thing. Neville and Hermione had to physically restrain Ron to stop him from knocking Malfoys teeth off.

Draco made a comment talking about how fat Mrs. Weasley was to which Ron immediately retorted by saying that Draco's mother looked like she was always smelling a foul odor and asked if she always looked like that or if ot was only because Draco was there.

Malfoy immediately tried to hex Ron but he missed. He was then turned into a ferret by professor Moody who just came. The DADA professor the had Draco bouncing all over the place, earning a few laughs.

However, the show was stopped by professor McGonagall. Hermione was glad because professor Moody could have seriously injured the Slytherin boy. As much as Neville disliked the other boy, he had to agree with Hermione. McGonagall stopping Mad-Eye right then and there was probably for the best.

The doors opened and the students entered the Great Hall for dinner. At the same time, the DADA teacher dragged Draco away to have a talk with the Head of the Slytherin House, professor Snape.

Hermione left dinner early, heading to the library to do something. As soon as she left, her seat was taken by Ron's brother, Fred. He, George, and their friend Lee then started to praised professor Moody, saying he was super cool. They just had him that afternoon and, according to them, it was the best DADA class they had ever had. It was, reportedly, an experience unlike any other. As expected from an ex-auror.

Ron instantly dived for his bag and fished out his schedule.

"We don't have him until Thursday!" Ron said disappointedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Yes, I do believe that "Moody" was the best DADA teacher, even better than Remus, as much as I love the man. Of course, this is excluding the whole secretly being a Death Eater and wanting to kill the BWL thing.  
\- Originally, Rexus was a barred owl since the species was included in several different lists of the most dangerous birds and most dangerous owls (the great horned owl was in some of these list as well but not as frequent as the barred owl), and a barred owl took part in a murder. As I was reading up on the barred owl, I found out that its most significant predator is the great horned owl. Further reading revealed that the great horned owl is also much more aggressive. And so, Rexus is now a great horned owl.  
\- I am suddenly very invested in this owl romance that I came up on the spot.  
\- I originally read GoF in Spanish. Because of that, I did not get what Ron wanting to see Lavender's work had anything to do with Trelawney giving more homework. But I do now. It was a fucking pun that only works in English. It was a fucking Uranus joke.


	10. The Professor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny is on a mission and Neville learns DADA

After classes were done for the day, Danny waited for a certain teacher in a corridor in the seventh floor. He was standing opposite of a tapestry of some guy, who according to Tom's letter was called Barnabas the Barmy, trying to teach trolls to dance the ballet of all things. He swore, sometimes (read: usually) wizards and witches are completely out of their minds.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" A professor asked as he walk towards the fist-year.

"Cut the crap", Danny said as he gave him a deadpan. "Let's just go."

The boy turned and walked past the section of blank wall three times. At the same time, he though about what he needed: a room full of lost things.

A wooden door appeared on the previously blank wall. Daniel opened it and went inside, and the professor followed behind.

As soon as they closed the door, the professor began to gruesomely changed. In a matter of seconds, the teacher was no longer there. In his place was a familiar freckled young man with straw-blond hair: Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Junior. It seemed like the Polyjuice Potion had reached its limit time and is no longer in effect.

"Come on", Barty said with a smile. "Loosen up a little, Little Lord."

Daniel ignored him in favour of looking around the room and... Ah! There it was. A broken Vanishing Cabinet.

"Are you really gonna fix that?" Barty asked. "Vanishing Cabinets are highly complex pieces of magic. It's not gonna be simple."

"You underestimate the Potter's secret libraries", Danny said as he took out a thick book from his bag and threw it at Barty. The man caught it. The title of the book read: _The Dark Artifacts._

"As you can assertain from the title, this book is all about dark artifacts", the Slytherin continued. "It has everything from how they are made, how they function, how to fix them, and how to destroy them. Luckily, this book doesn't have any piece of dark magic or any curses on it so my brother to send it to me without any complications with things such as the Hogwarts wards."

Barty skimmed through the book. It was highly detailed, with pictures and various diagrams. That being said, it seemed like the book did not showcase every single dark artifacts though the man was quite sure it was because they were created after the publishing of the book.

Looking through the book again, he came across the Vanishing Cabinets.

"Don't just stand there", Daniel told the Death Eater. "Come help me with this thing. I may have spent over a year in the Potter's libraries but I'm still a first year. I can't fix this thing by myself."

"Whatever you say, Little Lord", Barty said as he skipped to Danny's side.

...

It was one of the longest weeks of Ron's life. Well, theoretically speaking, he knew that all weeks had the same length but that week truly felt like it lasted forever. Perhaps it was due to how much he was anticipating the Defense Against the Dark Arts class of Professor Moody. With how much everyone who had already had DADA that week seemed to praise the professor, Ron could not wait for the class.

It appeared that they were finally getting a decent teacher for the subject. In his first year, they had Quirrel with his constant stuttering, smelly classroom, and Voldemort in the back of his head. Literally. In his second year, Lockhart was their DADA teacher. Lockhart who was not only a scam but the, frankly, incompetent man also tried to erase his and Neville's memory. In third year, they had a nice lady as their Defense teacher. All Ron remembered of her was that she had been nice to everyone and that was it. Everything else about her had been so bland and forgettable, especially her lessons.

But now, they had an ex-auror as their professor. And not just any ex-auror, the legendary Mad-Eye himself. Ron truly was excited for the class.

Another reason why the week felt so long to the redhead was their trio, Hermione, Neville, and himself, had spent hours looking for Daniel Potter. Neville still felt guilty over leaving Harry Potter in the Chamber and wanted to make up for it. Hermione was worried about him being a Potter in Slytherin. And Ron? He just followed along.

He honestly did not want to look for the younger boy. It had been a year, yes, but grieve could last for a long time. Ron never lost a brother, hell, he wasn't even as close to his brothers as the Potter brothers appeared to have been. He knew that he could never truly understand what Daniel felt. But his mom could. She had lost her two brothers, his uncles, in the last war and he had seen how it had devastated her, how long it had affected her. So, maybe, Daniel was not quite done grieving just yet and they should just let him come to terms with it by himself, at his own pace.

Ron did not think his friend the Boy-Who-Lived did anything wrong. Not because he was the Boy-Who-Lived, but because Ron had been there. Neville had indeed been chased by dozens of basilisks. They had indeed narrowly escaped death. Neville had to chose to either save Ginny or Harry. It was definitely not an easy choice. But Daniel was not there. The boy did not witness that. The boy truly believed that Neville could have saved them both but chose not to. And it was due to that, the Weasley thought it was better to leave the Potter boy alone. Ron thought that, personally, he wouldn't like the idea of someone he saw as his family's killer trying to befriend him either.

Despite thinking that, Ron still followed his friends because while they stubborn, they were still his stubborn _friends_, and he would followed them to the ends of the Earth.

However, finding Daniel proved to be stupidly difficult. Unless it was during meals, they literally never see him. It was like he vanished into thin air! Even the Marauder's Map, a map of Hogwart that show where everyone was, could not hind the boy! Ron honestly did not get how something like that could have happen.

Well, at least it was already Thursday.

...

It was finally Thursday. They were finally going to have their class with professor Moody. Neville was undoubtedly excited for this with how much this class had been hyped up.

As Hermione met up with them in front of the class after returning from the library, the trio of friends got inside and took their seats. They took out their copy of _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ and waited for the professor to come. Soon enough, they could hear professor Moody's very distinct footsteps (the professor was the only one with a wooden leg).

"Put those books away", the ex-auror said as he walked to his desk and sat down. "You won't be needing them."

The professor took out a piece of parchment paper and did a roll call. Once he finish, professor Moody began the lecture. The lesson today? Curses. Dark curses. Ignoring what the Ministry wants, which was to simply teach students the countercurses, Moody said that he intended to show how the curses looked like. According to him, it was better to identify the curses to protect themselves from them rather than just trying every single counter curse until they got the right one. Neville wholeheartedly agreed with this idea.

"Can anyone tell me which curses are the most punishable by the law?" Moody asked. There were a couple hands up.

"Yes, Mr Weasley?" Moody called.

"Um...", Ron uncertainly said. "My dad told me this one. It was the... Imperius Curse, I believe..."

"Yes, your dad would know about this one", the teacher said. "Gave the Ministry quite a bit of work during the last war..."

Professor Moody took out a jar with three large spiders in it. Ron visibly reared back. The professor took one out and pointed his wand at it.

"_Imperio_", he said. The spider immediately jumped from his hand and began doing some sort of gymnastic before switching to doing funny dance.

The class was laughing at this point. All except Moody. He proceeded to reprimand the class and to remind them that this was a dangerous curse. One that took away others' free will. The class went quiet.

"Can anyone tell me another one?" Moody asked after having put the spider in a different jar. He called a Ravenclaw named Goldstein.

"The Cruciatus Curse, sir", the boy answered.

"Correct", the teacher said as he took out another spider. "We'll need a bigger one for this... _Engorgio_."

The spider grew till it was bigger than Moody's hand. Ron pushed his chair back as far away from the teacher's desk as possible.

"_Crucio_", the professor casted.

The spider began to twitch uncontrolably. It look like it was in pain. A pain so great that it would scream until its lungs gave out if it could. Moody held his wand steady. The pain seemed to intensify by the second, the spider shuddering more and more violently. Finally, the DADA teacher stopped the curse, changed the spider back, and put it away. He explained that the Crutiatus was a curse that inficted a great amount of pain onto its target. There was no need for screws or knives, for iron maidens or Judas craddles to torture someone if one knew this curse.

Moody asked for the last curse. He called Hermione, who answered with "_Avada Kedavra_", the Killing Curse.

Moody took the last spider out. He casted the curse. A flash of green light and the spider was dead.

Neville recognised that colour. That hue of green. It was the one that killed his parents. The one that plague his nightmares of that night. And it was also the colour of the eyes of Harry Potter, the boy he forgot to save...

Neville was shaking in his seat. He felt his guilt bubble up. He felt like dying on the inside. The self-proclaimed "Useless Chosen One" silently wept on the inside. Weeping for his mistakes and failures...

The rest of the lesson was spent in silent, taking notes about these three curses, the three Unforgivable Curses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Listen, I know we all know who Barty is pretensing to be because, let's be honest, we all read the books and/or watched the movies. But, I don't feel like revealing this plot twist yet.  
\- Originally, I had Danny fix the Cabinet alone but then I realized that would make him too OP. So I enlisted Barty's help.  
\- The reason I didn't have Remus be the DADA professor in Neville's third year is because family member of his (Harry) had presumably just died at Hogwarts. Dumbledore wasn't gonna be like: "Hey, I know your surrogate nephew just died and all, but do you wanna take this cursed position that is the DADA professor at Hogwarts?"  
\- I don't remember which House Gryffindor has DADA with this year so I just chose a random one.


	11. Beauxbaton and Durmstrang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beauxbaton and Durmstrang arrive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been forver but what can you do.

Time moved on and before they knew it, October has arrived. Neville had to temporarily stop trying to connect with Daniel Potter due to the increased amount of school work. Things had been hectic to say the least, what with professor Moody trying to make them fight off the _Imperius _Curse, Hagrid having them take care of his herd of blast-ended skrewt, and just classes being more difficult overall.

In regards to fighting the Unforgivable Curse, despite Moody's tips and constant practice, no one had yet to succeed. Neville knew that this practice would be vital once Voldemort actually came back but he still didn't like it. Could you blame him? They were being cursed with one of the most dangerous ones after all.

As for the blast-ended skrewts, the Boy-Who-Lived would rather all those creatures died. Working with them was miserable! They were picky, hostile, violent, and they exploded, for Merlin's sake! He felt guilty for thinking but Neville hoped Hagrid wouldn't be their Care for Magical Creatures next year. Don't get him wrong! Neville loved Hagrid. The half giant was really nice and friendly, and he was actually good at teaching, which makes sense since this was hos passion. However, the man was awful at judging how dangerous the creatures he brought to class were. So bad, in fact, that Neville was afraid for their safety every lesson. With all that said, the boy never had the heart to tell him the truth.

Aside from classes, his time was also taken up by the S.P.E.W., or the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Hermione had founded the organization a couple weeks back in order to fight for the rights of House Elves. The Society currently only had three members: Hermione, Ron, and himself. The muggleborn had been trying to recruit new members. Some were curious as to what she had to say, some joined only to stop her from pestering them, some seemed to join as a joke, but, overall, no one really appeared to be interested. 

On a cold October morning, Neville and his friends arrived at the Great Hall see large group of students huddle together around a large sign. It read:

_THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT _

_The delegations from Beauxbatons and _ _Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o’clock _ _on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will _ _end half an hour early. _ _Students will return their bags and books _ _to their dormitories and assemble in front _ _of the castle to greet our guests before _ _the Welcoming Feast._

"That's only one week away!" Neville heard someone exclaimed. The crowd's chatters increased exponentially at that.

During the following week, it seemed that the Tournament was the only thing on everyone's mind. The Hogwarts' rumour mill was on full blast, from who the Hogwarts' Champion would be, how different the other schools were, to what the Tournament would entail; like dogs without horses, it was running wild. The Hogwarts castle itself was getting a deep clean, no longer looking like it was a centuries old structure. The teachers seemed especially tense, making sure everyone was in their very best behaviour, was achieving the best possible results. This wasn't really a surprise. Hogwarts was the only magical school in the British Isles. It represented the Wizarding Comunity of the Isles. They could not afford to have the two mainland schools look down on it, and on them as a result.

...

The 30th of October finally rolled around. The Great Hall was completely redecorated overnight, looking more grandiose than ever.

After a light early dinner, the students were taken outside. Standing in lines, the Hogwarts' student body waited for the two other schools to arrive.

As time passed and the students were getting more and more impatient.

"Look over there!" A student exclaimed. "The forest!"

Directing his attention to the forest, the Boy-Who-Lived saw a gigantic carriage pulled through the air by dozens of enormous winged horses. The carriage landed and a giant woman stepped out followed by a row of boys and girls dressed in silk robes. They were the Beauxbatons. The woman greeted Dumbledore, who identified her as Madame Maxime, and was led into the castle with her students to warm up.

Moments later, from the lake emerged a huge ship. Several people descended, all covered in layers of matted brown fur. All except the oldest one, a tall and thin man who was probably the headmaster of their school. The Durmstrang representative are here.

"Look, Neville", Ron said excitedly. "It's Krum! It's Viktor Krum!"

And, sure enough, standing with the Durmstrang students was Viktor Krum, the Seeker for the Bulgarian National Team. Durmstrang's headmaster, whom Dumbledore called Karkaroff, seemed to be favouring him over the rest, though Neville can't exactly blame the man.

"Calm down", Hermione whisper-yelled at Ron as they were walking back inside. "He's just a quidditch player."

"Just a quidditch player!?" Ron said incredulously. "Hermione, he's one of the best Seekers in the world!" And Neville's two closest friends began to bicker again.

As the Hogwarts' student settled back in their house tables. Ron tried to make some space for the Durmstrang students at the Gryffindor table but they decided to sit with the Slytherins instead. The Beauxbatons, on the other hand, went to sit with the Ravenclaws.

Viktor Krum was sitting next to Daniel Potter, discussing something. Malfoy seemed to be trying to talk to the famous Seeker and get on his good side, though the platinum-haired boy seemed to be largely ignored.

Neville's eyes met Daniel's for a split second. The Boy-Who-Lived could not help but feel a chill run down his spine. Something was going to go horribly wrong this year. He could feel it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- This chapter was supposed to come out sooner but I spend an entire afternoon fighting Catastrophe in Monster Strike instead of writing. The stage is only present for that afternoon. After that, it's gone and I'll have to wait until who knows when to fight it again. So, I took an entire afternoon fighting it and I didn't even win and get him. It's not that the stage is even that hard (well, it's a Colossal Quest which is really hard but I could beat it), it's just that I was really unlucky. And then, I spent that entire evening fighting Tír na nÓg, whom I also didn't beat, and the following morning I fought Sakimitama, whom I did actually get.  
\- Neville is kind of a pushover. I mean, he kinda was in canon too though canon!Neville did grow a spine. This Neville? Not yet.


	12. Chosen Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel becomes friends witg Krum. Neville finally catches up with Danny and the champions are chosen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, my internet was down for like a week and that's why I didn't upload sooner. Sorry. In the meantime, I entered a Harry Potter fanfic writing competition. Please vote for me [here](https://m.facebook.com/trepublishinghouse/photos/a.3424898640854805/3490072644337404/?type=3&d=m) by sharing, reacting, and commenting. Just in case something is wrong, mine is number 190.

Striking a friendship with famous quidditch player Viktor Krum was an unexpected but not unwelcomed surprise for Danny. In hindsight, Viktor wanting to befriend him kinda makes sense. Being a famous sportsman, the older boy must have met a fair share of people who wanted to be his friend for fame and/or money, including the very ambitious Slytherins he shared classes with. Seeing someone not give a shit about his status must have been a breath of fresh air for Krum. And, well, Daniel could not say that he didn't enjoy Krum's company. The boy was smart, fun to talk with, and had extensive knowledge of the Dark Arts, seeing that it was a subject at Durmstrang. It was thanks to Krum's knowledge that the fixing of the Vanishing Cabinet had been greatly sped up. He reconned it would be done by the end of the year or so.

"Say, Daniel", Krum said one afternoon as they studied in the library. "Vhy are you interested in the Dark Arts? I thought your family was Light? And isn't there a stigma against Dark Magic in England."

"Yes, and yes", Daniel replied. "You are completely correct in your assumptions. As for my reasons... Well, I suppose it is simply curiosity. The more something is prohibited, the more we want to do it or learn about it, no?"

"Yes, I suppose that makes sense", Krum commented. "By the way..."

Of course it made sense. It was the truth after all. Maybe not the whole truth but Daniel wasn't about to confess everything to someone he just met for a couple of days. Besides, it wasn't as though he could tell anyone that it was because he was working for the Dark Lord Voldemort who also happened to be the boyfriend of his comatosed brother. Not only would that land him and his family in serious trouble, it would also sound super weird to anyone and everyone.

...

"There you are", Neville said as he caught up to Daniel on the seventh floor near a staircase.

"What do you want, Mr Boy-Who-Lived?" The first year asked with barely hidden disdain.

"W-Well", Neville stammered nerviously. "I-I wanted to be your friend. I know Slytherin isn't the most welcoming place for halfbloods and muggleborns and n-not to mention you are from a Light family... I guess I also want to make up to you for... for, you know..." Neville nerviously said as a unconsciously waved the piece of parchment in his hand. "I just..."

Danny narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He found it strange that Neville would walk around looking for him with a piece of parchment in hand and no backpack whatsover. Even if the Boy-Who-Lived was wearing a backpack, it would still be strange. Why would he not put that piece of paper away? Unless...

Daniel suddenly snatched the paper from Neville's hand, causing the older boy to stop talking.

"Daniel, what-", Neville asked but was interrupted by the younger boy.

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good", Daniel as he tap the parchment with his wand. A detailed map of Hogwarts appeared. Neville's eyes widened in shock.

"Mischief managed", Daniel tapped the map again with a satisfied smile as the map disappeared, leaving the parchmemt blank again.

"How do you...?" Neville asked in shock.

"Know of the Marauder's Map?" Danny said with a smirk. "My father and uncles created it, that's why. Well, thank you for your offer but I'm afraid I have to say no. It's not like you actually want to be my friend. You only offered me the Chosen One's friendship because you feel guilty about what happened to my brother", the boy said matter-of-factly. "Well then, I'll be taking this", he waved the map, "with me though. It rightfully belongs to _me_ after all."

And with that, Daniel spun around and left, leaving Neville behind.

...

Tonight was the night. The champions would soon be chosen by the Goblet of Fire, an ancient artefact used to pick out the three champions from the staggering amount of names summitted by the students. Well, the seventeen-year-old students, anyway. Professor Dumbledore had surrounded the Goblet with an age line so no one under 17 may pass. Neville could not wait to see who would be chosen and how the tournament would play out. Hopefully nothing to bad would happen and this year would be as peaceful as the last.

That being said, Neville was still a bit bumped out about losing the Marauder's Map. A map of Hogwarts that showed where everyone was was an extremely useful tool. But Neville could not just take it back like Ron suggested. He did not know what the Slytherin common room's password was, and there was no way he could sneak in there undetected. Besides, Daniel had a point. The map did rightfully belonged to him.

(When Neville broke the news to Fred and George, Ron's brothers and the previous owner of the map, he expected them to be somewhat mad. However, it seemed they did not care that much and were too busy freaking out over the fact that the _Head Auror_ was a Marauder.)

"... And finally, the Hogwarts champion is", Dumbledore announced. "Cedric Diggory!"

The Hufflepuffs burst into cheers at that announcement, somewhere even standing up and jumping on the table. Cedric, the Hufflepuff's prefect and Hogwarts champion, parted through the crowd with a wide smile and walking to a side room where the Durmstrang champion, Viktor Krum, and the Beauxbatons, a beautiful girl named Fleur Delacour whom Neville suspected to be part veela.

"Splendid", Dumbledore said as the last cheers and applauses died down. "Now that we have our champions, I hope that all of you here will give them all the support you could and help make this tournament-"

Suddenly, the Goblet turned red and spat out another piece of parchment. Dumbledore extended his hand and caught the paper. There was a long pause before the Headmaster finally read the piece of parchment out loud.

"Neville Longbottom", he read.

Well, dicks. There went the peaceful year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Again, please vote for me [here](https://m.facebook.com/trepublishinghouse/photos/a.3424898640854805/3490072644337404/?type=3&d=m) by sharing, reacting, and commenting. Thank you for your support!  
\- So, Neville lost the Marauder's Map. That is gonna put him at a major disadvantage, especially when you consider that Daniel belongs firmly on the opposite side.

**Author's Note:**

> So, what do you think? Is this decent enough?
> 
> Also, expect irregular updates because school is a bitch.


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